Alpacas to the Rescue.... Gelded male Alpacas are most suited as herd protectors. These cost around €600 from Westwind Alpacas.

Alpacas protect lambs!Lambing season is well under way, but behind all the lambs frolicking in the fields might well be a worried farmer or shepherd. Foxes also have young to look after and keeping them away from sheep is ...

Until recently it was a little known fact to those who were not involved with the alpaca, that this unique animal possesses another characteristic which significantly benefits the sheep farmer: that of a defender against predators! Especially foxes.The instinct for one or preferably two alpacas to bond as companions with sheep and goats has resulted in the growing use of wethered adult male alpacas as flock guardians. Alpacas can also be run with puoltry.The alpaca, a large, strong animal, is uniquely observant and curious. While it is normally a gentle and placid animal it is particularly protective of its mob against predators, and especially companion offspring. In addition, while they will tolerate familiar farm dogs they hate with a passion those they don't recognise. Indeed, cases have been recorded in Australia of males or wethers bravely standing in front of females and progeny in the corner of a paddock fending off attacks by packs of dogs. In some cases the dogs have killed a guardian while most of his flock has survived.Because of their observant and curious nature, alpacas will notice a threat like a dog, or fox immediately and move towards it, alerting the rest of the mob by emitting high pitched squeals not unlike that of squeaky wheel bearings. Because these predators generally avoid confrontation they will usually move away; however should this not be the case the alpaca will chase the predator and may even kick and stomp upon it until either the dangerous animal has run away or is dead."Prior to selling our 2400 acre sheep and cattle property in the central west of New South Wales three years ago, we used alpaca wethers to guard our 800 ewes during and after lambing. They enabled us to achieve almost 100% lambing whereas previously, even with annual fox control programs, we had only achieved 80% - 85% lamb breeding rates", said Bob Richardson, a Yass NSW alpaca breeder and current Vice-President of the Australian Alpaca Association. "So guardian alpacas are a profitable investment for sheep and goat breeders."

Mr. Richardson went on to say, "The alpaca eats the same food as the sheep and does not bark at anything that moves. In addition it requires much the same care as sheep, but rarely gets fly strike or foot rot and never needs crutching or mulesing. Moreover, unlike many other animals, alpacas do not shed their fibre so the risk of fibre cross-contamination with sheep is negligible, much less likely than from sheep dogs during yard work".The Australian Alpaca Association strongly recommends that alpacas used as guardians for lambing, ewe and breeding goat flocks should be fully grown adult castrated males at least 18 months to two years old. They should not be kept alone when not running with a companion flock, so they are often purchased as a pair.

Prince Charles unleashes his fluffy bouncers

SINCE riding to hounds was banned, the Prince of Wales has found a new way to protect his flock of 450 organic sheep from foxes – four South American alpacas.The llama-like creatures act as bouncers on his farm near Tetbury, in Gloucestershire, bonding with the sheep, ever ready to protect them against predators such as foxes, which used to kill as many as 50 newborn lambs every year.Unlike sheep, alpacas happily confront foxes, chase them and try to trample or kick them. And while the prince’s staff have not yet found any battered fox bodies in the hedgerows, they haven’t lost any lambs either since the alpacas arrived.Alpacas, which are related to camels, are domestic animals first bred from wild vicuna in South America. They are edible when young but are reared mainly for their fine wool. They look like a cross between a small llama and a large, long-necked sheep and can grow to 6ft tall.#include file="m63-article-related-attachements.html" Duchy Home Farm has been run organically since 1986 and is renowned as one of the most environmentally friendly farms in the country.Foxes, though, are a serious problem. Until 2005, when the ban came into force, the Beaufort hunt helped to control the fox population in rural areas of Gloucestershire.The new laws did not, in fact, outlaw the extermination of foxes by other methods such as shooting. They may also be hunted with other species. The Warwickshire hunt even experimented with giant eagle owls.Charles’s alpacas do not hunt. Instead, they are used as sentries, standing guard over his collection of sheep, which includes some valuable rare breeds. If one spots a fox, they all charge over to administer a group kicking.All four animals are male geldings, worth about £500 each. Breeding animals are too valuable for such work, with pregnant females fetching £3,500 or more and stud males worth up to £30,000 depending on pedigree.Rob Bettinson, former president of the British Alpaca Society and now owner of Toft Alpacas, keeps a breeding herd of 150 on his farm in Dunchurch, Warwickshire. “Alpacas were introduced to Britain only about 12 years ago but the national herd is now 17,000 strong,” Bettinson said. “They are popular as pets and for breeding and farmers increasingly use them as sentries to guard other animals.“If a fox enters the field they will all start walking or running towards it. Alpaca can kick and trample very hard so the fox usually gets the message pretty quickly and clears out.”Such protective behaviour seems instinctive to alpacas, which appear to bond with any animals grazing with them in the field. Farmers have reported watching alpacas rounding up sheep and chickens and then standing guard over them when danger looms.They may have their work cut out on the prince’s farm. There are an estimated 240,000 adult foxes in Britain and 425,000 cubs are born each year.Because the adult population is fairly stable, this means that about 425,000 foxes die each year – mostly through disease, starvation and road accidents.In rural areas gamekeepers kill about 75,000 a year. Hunts, when legal, killed about 16,000.Richard Kempsey, production manager at Clarence Court, a company producing speciality eggs from birds including ostriches, geese, ducks and rare breeds of hens, suffered years of predation at his farm near Truro, in Cornwall, until he bought two alpacas.He said: “We have 2,000 birds on site and the foxes are desperate to get at them but the alpaca keep them away. We have named them William and Harry.”The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was nonplussed when asked whether using alpacas was cruel to foxes. “Using an imported South American camel to chase British foxes is so bizarre, we have not even thought about it,” said John Rolls, the society’s director of communications

.A fox’s worst nightmare- Alpacas are fluffy and sociable but can be fierce. They chase away intruders and some spit globules of semi-digested vegetation mixed with stomach acid- They live in families consisting of a single male, several females and young, known as cria- They originate from the Peruvian Andes, where they thrive at altitudes of 10,000-15,000ft